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Building Liner Ponds
By
Brett Fogle
Surprisingly enough, it is usually in mid-summer that many gardeners
begin to think about installing a small pond or water garden. Ponds don't
need to be weeded or watered, and they can supply exuberant color in the
form of water lilies and bog plants.
The sound of a splashing fountain or waterfall is more appealing than
weeding a flower bed or mowing that section of lawn. Best of all, no matter
how hot or wet it gets, the pond just keeps on blooming!
At this point you may start to think about the expense and labor of
installing a concrete pond, and our 95 degree days are just about enough to
stop this pond daydream in its tracks.
However, with the advent of newer pond liners and pre-formed pools, the
misery associated with concrete mixing and finishing is a thing of the past.
Heavy duty pool liners with 10 year guarantees are now common, and can sell
for as little as $1.00 a square foot.
Preformed ponds in many different shapes and sizes are also an
alternative method to create a quick pond at less cost than using concrete.
Using these materials, the average gardener can install a decent size pond
in less than one day, and have it stocked with plants, fish and fountain by
the following morning.
The simplest kind of pond to build is an above-the-ground pond. Since no
digging is required, it usually takes much longer to fill this pond with
water than it does to build it!
There are many variations on this theme, but as an example, one can use
treated lumber planks which are at least 2 inches thick by 12 inches wide,
nail them together to form a rectangular shape of the desired dimensions,
and place the form where the pond is desired.
This bottomless "box" can be placed directly on the grass, concrete, a
deck, etc., and then the bottom is covered with some kind of padding or
cushioning material. Most books say to use sand, but I think the perfect
material is roofing felt. It is cheap, convenient, lies flat, makes a
barrier to weeds, and provides a good cushion for the pool liner.
Once the roofing felt is in place, the pool liner can be dropped into the
form and you begin filling the pond with water. A few staples on the outside
of the pond form may be needed to keep the liner from blowing into the pond,
but be sure to use just a few, and place them at the edge of the liner.
As the pond fills, the weight of the water will do a good job in
smoothing out wrinkles, but if you are a perfectionist, you can help smooth
them out by hand before there is more than one inch of water in the bottom
of the pond. While the pond is beginning to fill, you can check the level of
the form, and if it needs to be raised a little on one or two sides, this
can be done by carefully inserting some shims to raise the forms where
needed.
If you prefer the pond to overflow on a certain side (like, into the
flower bed, rather than onto the deck!) then you may want to leave the
overflow side a quarter inch lower than the rest of the pond.
You should wait until the pond is completely filled before cutting any
excess liner or doing any permanent stapling. This will give the water
pressure enough time to pull the liner into every nook and cranny where it
needs to go; some of those few holding staples which you used to hold the
liner in place may actually tear loose as the pond fills, but if you stapled
the liner on the outside of the form, near the edges, then no harm is
done... you will be trimming some of that excess liner off, anyway.
It really does take longer to fill this kind of pond than it does to
build it. I once built a twenty-by-thirty foot pond in two hours but it took
all night for it to fill with water.
I think an ideal depth for an above ground pond is about 14 inches, but
it can be deeper or more shallow than that, depending on what materials you
are using for the form. Railroad ties, landscape timbers, concrete blocks,
etc. are all possible materials for pond building.
Remember that any kind of wood must be pressure treated if you want it to
last more than a year! Although I mentioned rectangular shape, if you have
some carpentry skills, you can also do triangles, pentagons, ponds within
ponds, etc.
Ponds built with treated lumber planks do not need any side support if
they are less than 8 feet or 10 feet long; if you are building larger than
that, you will want to drive a stake into the ground where the planks are to
be nailed together, so the water pressure won't make the planks bow outward.
So, if you know how to use twelve nails to nail four planks together, then
you can build a pond. If you are feeling lazy, have the lumber yard cut the
planks to size you need. Borrow your neighbor's staple gun, find those
scissors buried in the kitchen drawer, and you are in business!
Pond liners can also be used to make an in the ground pond. The advantage
is that you can make any shape pond you want, and the ground itself supports
the sides of the liner.
It is a good idea to use a flexible garden hose to lay out the pool shape
you want. Once everyone agrees that it is a pleasant shape, and it is large
enough, you can dig a trench along side the hose, and start digging.
Remember, the pool does not have to be more than 12 to 16 inches deep, so
don't get carried away. If you want a waterfall, some of the excavated soil
can be mounded up near the pond for later waterfall construction. In some
cases, it may be useful to use some of the soil for a berm around the pond,
so that is another way to dispose of excavated soil.
Once the pond is excavated, check the level, decide which side you want
excess rainfall to flow from, and then you are ready to line the hole with
roofing felt, running it across the pond, up the sides onto the edges of the
pond. Drop the liner in, weigh it down lightly with some rocks around the
edges, and start filling.
Again, do not trim any excess liner until the pond is completely filled.
Some pond books say you should create a shallow shelf in the pond before
putting in the liner, but they don't have our river sand and rainfall to
deal with. I think it is better to build the pond to a depth of 14-16
inches, and just use bricks to prop up those bog plants that don't want to
sit too deep in water. This gives greater flexibility in rearranging the
pond plants as you wish, and avoids the calamity of a shelf suddenly
slumping into the pool. When using pool liners, whether in the ground or
above the ground, it is important to conceal the edges from sunlight, since
that is what eventually breaks down most liners.
Using stones or lumber planks to finish off the edge of your pond will
make it more appealing, and enable the liner to live up to its ten year
guarantee. Even the heavier, preformed plastic ponds should have their edges
covered by sod or some paving material, so the sun can't reach it. Some
final pointers: if possible, locate your pond away from trees, in a place
that gets at least five hours of direct sun daily. This will allow you to
grow a wide variety of pond plants.
Be sure to use a dechlorinating product when you first fill the ponds...
the new chemicals in our drinking water do not dissipate quickly and they
will kill your fish and damage your plants, even ten days after you have
filled the pond!
Be sure you are pleased with the size and shape of your pond before you
start - so you won't say "I should have made it bigger, or longer, or
rounder, etc.", within two hours of filling it!
Rule number one in pond building is that no matter how big your pond is,
you always want a bigger one.
Last, but not least, if you decide to do an in-the-ground pond, why not
serve refreshments and get some friends to help . . . friends will have all
kinds of useful ideas on how you should do it ... which is fine, as long as
they keep digging...
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Brett Fogle is the owner of MacArthur Water Gardens and several
other pond-related websites including
MacArthurWatergardens.com
and
Pond-Filters-Online.com. He also publishes a free monthly
newsletter called PondStuff! with a reader circulation of over
9,000. To sign up for the free newsletter and receive our FREE
'New Pond Owners Guide' visit MacArthur Water Gardens today!
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Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/
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